Baby Says: Better the Car than the OR!

The UPI reports of a baby born in a car on the shoulder of an Illinois highway today:

An Illinois woman says she and her newborn are doing well after the woman’s boyfriend helped deliver the baby inside a car along Interstate 72.

And…

Holeman said she and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Justin Howell, were driving towards Springfield when she realized the baby was about to arrive.

Howell pulled over and called 911. Emergency dispatchers successfully talked him through the delivery and firefighters arrived minutes after the child was born. The baby is doing just fine, said Holeman, who has two other children.

The hitch? Mom was scheduled for a c-section next week:

Shaniece Holeman, 27, of Jacksonville, Ill., said she had planned to give birth to her daughter, Taegan, by Cesarean section on Jan. 4 but she went into labor Monday while out shopping with her boyfriend, the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register reported.

“This is stuff you read about happening,” Holeman told the newspaper from her room at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. “I never thought I’d be giving birth in a car.”

It’s not clear from the article whether this was a VBAC, though it does say Shaniece has other children. Like Annmarie Schulte’s VBA3C during rush hour traffic in Milwaukee, this story goes to show that sometimes babies pick their own place and time to be born…and maybe for really good reason.

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About ICAN

The International Cesarean Awareness Network is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve maternal-child health by reducing preventable cesareans through education, supporting cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC).